262 Dr. Bryant on the Birds 



or eggs that were nearly hatched. I did not see a single bird that 

 had more than the merest trace of the long white feathers of the 

 neck and thighs, The full number of eggs is four, and, excepting 

 when first laid, they are filthy in the extreme. In shape they are 

 more regular than in the Florida Cormorants, but less so than in 

 the double-crested, the only species of this genus with whose eggs 

 I am sufficiently acquainted to properly compare them. The 

 calcareous coating of this Qgg, as also of that of the dilophus, is 

 much softer than that of the Floridanus^ and can readily be rub- 

 bed off with the fingers ; in some specimens it is quite thick, and 

 is frequently deposited in irregular sheets, or even lumps. The 

 birds were very tame, and, though they flew off on our approach, 

 returned to their nests the moment we moved to another spot. 

 On alighting on the sides of the precipice they cling to it with 

 'heir tail and claws, much like swifts or woodpeckers, and before 

 alighting almost always swooped down nearly to the surface of the 

 water and then rose in a curved line to the surface of the chff, 

 without moving their wings, and almost with the regularity of a 

 pendulum. Though these birds breed on many other points on 

 the coast, I did not find them in as large numbers anywhere else* 

 The number at Wapitaguan was from 4,000 to 5,000. 



Four eggs measured as follows : 71 x 40 mill. — 64 x 40 — 63 x 

 43—67^ X 43^. 



Phalacrocorax dilophus, Swains. This species, so closely re- 

 sembling the Florida Cormorant, I found breeding only at one 

 place, Wapitaguan ; it was not so abundant as the P, carho^ being 

 in the proportion of about one of the present to four of the other. 

 The northerly part of the breeding-place was occupied exclusively 

 by the present species, the central part by both, and the southerly 

 by the common species only. Though so early in the season, there 

 was hardly a trace of the crest remaining on any of the birds. Their 

 nests were apparently as bulky as those of the common species, 

 and as they are certainly occupied for more than one year, I am 

 inclined to think it not uncommon for the nest built by one species 

 to be occupied by the other the next season. As a general rule, 

 they preferred the lowest ledges, where the two species were breed- 

 ing in common ; but the highest nest of all was one of the present 

 species. Where the ledge was long enough to admit of several nests, 

 they were generally occupied by the same species ; where there 

 were only two or three, much more frequently by the two. In one 

 or two places near the summit, where the rock was broken in such 



